The door to the study was left slightly open. When the thief pushed it open the nobles looked at him with surprise.

"That didn't take long." The bigger man looked Avery up and down. And if Twitchy was certain there was a brief flicker of recognition in the big knight's eyes.

"This is Avery."

Avery took his que and bowed to both lords just like Arie taught him. "My Lord," he said to Raoul. "Your Grace." To Imrah.

Imrah grunted. Not quite impressed, and just a touch surprised.

Twitchy sensed what his question was going to be. "Anna taught Arie all the proper manners. Which the kid insisted on continuin. This kid took to it better than I did."

"Anna was exceptional in all her studies that she applied herself to." There was a note of censure in the man's voice. As if this had been something that had been argument between father and daughter. Though Twitchy thought the man's expression had more amusement than anger or regret. "I hadn't realized etiquette was one that she took seriously. Her tutors seemed to think differently."

Avery remained silent and continued giving his usual charming smile. If the boy thought the Lord's comments were strange, he didn't show any signs of it. Twitchy wasn't even sure if Arie had told Avery that she came from noble stock.

"Twitchy told me I could be of assistance to you Lords. How can I help?"

"Ah, I will get to that in just a moment. First let me get someone. It occurs to me it might be good to have someone with a Gift present for this conversation." The lord reached behind himself and pulled a rope that was concealed in the shadows of a bookcase. A few moments later fast footsteps approached the door and a rail thin young man peeked through the door. He had a mop of black hair that flopped into bright blue eyes.

"You summoned me, my Grace?"

"Yes, I need you to bring Sir Nealon here. I believe he is in his room."

The squire nodded and left without so much as a hello to anyone else in the room. Raoul smiled at the door as the young man left.

"Something amuse you, Sir Raoul?"

"Amuse? No, no. Just remembering my own time as squire. It takes a bit to get over the hero worship of your knight to see them as a person and your teacher. One time I forgot to do a proper greeting near deportment teacher." He winced. "How such an old bore could make a few words sting worse than a wooden practice sword I'll never know."

This pulled a smile from the older knight, "I'm working on it with him."

"I find having them work in the mud a couple days in row kills the illusion pretty quickly."

Imrah snorted. "From what I hear, you enjoy that a lot more than formal affairs of the palace."

Raoul scowled at Imrah, and muttered something about not being a dancing bear.

It was interesting to Twitchy watching these two high born men joke with each other. Their language was more 'respectable' than anything Twitchy had ever used, but there was the comradery that he had had in the thieves' guild.

Footsteps approached drawing the attention of everyone. A moment later the squire opened the door. "Sir Nealon, as you requested, sir."

"Thank you, Zachery. You may go to bed."

Behind the squire was indeed Sir Nealon. The knight's hair was rumpled, but not nearly as rumpled as his clothes. Clearly, Zachery had woken the knight and been very pushing about it. Even the knight's eyes which were normally very sharp were still clouded with drowsiness.

"What is the emergency that I was rushed from sleep for? I assume Judith is well, because I was summoned here not to her room."

Imrah cleared his throat. "No emergency. I wish you to do the honor of checking everyone present is clean and then I also wanted to consult you on a few matters."

Neal stifled a yawn. "Ah, well then, I'll guess I can do that. So long as you sick your squire on me until I have gotten my proper beauty rest." Slowly an emerald arura colored the air around the man until his eyes glowed with the power of his magic. He made a thorough inspection of both nobles, and Twitch, but it was Avery the knight's eyes lingered on the longest. Finally, he let his magic go. "I don't see anything, but if this young man," He gestured to Avery. "Is infected, it would be extremely recent. His Gift makes it harder to see."

"Does it?" Avery seemed very thoughtful.

Neal nodded. "I thought everyone knew one's Gift protects them from the Sight of another. It's part of the basic schooling everyone receives."

Avery shrugged. "My family couldn't really afford to lose me to schooling. So, the only fancy learning I received came from Arie."

"Then you should have had an excellent teacher."

Avery shrugged again, "If only I was better student."

Neal grinned at that. Roaul even chuckled and added, "Then you might have more in common with Neal than you think. I believe he was the bane of his old training master."

"Nonsense, the Stump and I have long since made peace. He even attended my wedding."

Imrah choked and turned it into a cough. "To the heart of the reason we are all here." Everyone turned to the older man. "It has come to our attention that people who were part of an attack on Arie or who have perceived slights against the girl are being targeted. Some by fire magic, and some by this poison. You, young man," Imrah addressed Avery directly. "Were a witness to the attack, and the one who rescued her."

"I wished I could have done more for her that night."

Imrah nodded in agreement. "It has occurred to us that it is entirely possible someone is trying to frame Arie for these acts. Or that someone is seeking revenge for her. Either way it does not bode well for her."

Avery stiffened just as he had when Twitchy had said much the same. The first genuine reaction from the boy since they entered the castle. "What do you mean, 'it doesn't bode well for her'? Arie can't kill. She can't use fire magic. She was bedridden for months and hasn't been back here since the attack."

Raoul sighed, "Think about it. We know the people here didn't trust her to begin with. Now, she is in a position of power in which one word from her, and people will be whisked away to endure a very unpleasant treatment that makes them vulnerable to her. It won't matter to those people who already afraid of her that she wasn't here when the attacks started. They will see someone they are afraid of hurting people they know and care about. She will be resented and hated, and it is possible another mob will form."

"But she's innocent! Everyone knows that!" The angry words burst from Avery.

Imrah raised his eyebrows at the boy. "If that were the case, she would have never been attacked in the first place."

Twitchy hated him. He hated how plainly and bluntly the Lord pointed out the flaw in Avery's thinking. The same thinking that he himself had been thinking. Twitchy knew better than anyone what fear could do to a man. Now Arie was in a place surrounded by people who were afraid of her.

"Now you understand why we need to find the person who is doing this quickly."

Twitchy looked up at Avery who was staring back at the noble in a calculated way.

"This person is someone who is either very angry at Arie or with the people who hurt Arie. Can you get us a list of both kinds of people?"

Before Avery could answer Twitchy cleared his throat. "I think I might have a way to narrow the list further."

Imrah nodded.

"None of the attacks I found happened until a couple months after 'it'. But all the rage was still in em when they started settin' fires. I was thinkin' they could've been injured. Pain that stops someone from murder is sure to keep your rage burnin'. Or, they could have been in prison. Since your Grace's guards alternate between the prison, port, and here it's possible that a prisoner could've learned certain things about your family." Twitchy wasn't certain how much he should tell this group, but it seemed constantly blatantly telling people Arie was the Lord's granddaughter was a sure way to put more targets on her back.

Imrah sat back in his chair and rubbed his chin. Twitchy could see the man putting the pieces together in his mind. Slowly the older man nodded. "Yes, that would make sense." He looked to Avery again. "Is there anyone on the list of yours that would fit that description?"

"A fair few." Avery chewed on his bottom lip and choose his next words very carefully. "But if this person is out for revenge, I'm not sure if it matters if we stop them or not. As you have said, people are already afraid of Arie. All this person would need to do now is point the finger at her in a public way. Especially if they are caught. How do you plan on protecting her?"

Imrah exchanged a look with Raoul. The younger knight shrugged as if to say, your call. After a deep sigh Imrah admitted to the room. "Anna is my daughter. Arie is my granddaughter."

Twitchy realized no one in the room seemed surprised by this. Even Neal looked unsurprised.

"Interesting." Avery said more to himself than anyone else. "Interesting," he repeated. While the kid was also unsurprised, he also seemed to be pondering the ramifications of this admission. Finally, he said, "I'm not sure how that helps to be frank with you. Actually, I think that does more harm to Arie than provide her with protection. There will be plenty of people who will see this as a grab for power by Arie. It will set nobles against her as well as encourage whispers among us common folk that you were magicked. That wouldn't bode well for you either." Avery gestured to Twitchy. "We already know they will because that's what people said about Anna. That Arie was a demon who magicked her."

Twitchy clenched his fists and looked at the floor, even as he felt everyone's eyes on him. Once again, he had to fight back the memories that rose in his mind. The nasty whispers, the glares, suspicion, all of it directed at a child who wandered through the market with her mother. He took a deep shuttering breath and gave the memories another firm shove forcing them into one of the many dark corners of his mind.

"-you can't seriously be suggesting to kill men before we know if they are innocent or not." This time it was Neal who was speaking to Avery, the knight looked sick to his stomach. Twitchy was surprised to realize he had missed part of the conversation.

Avery shrugged. "I don't like it either, but unless you can think of a way to keep Arie safe every minute of the day then I'm not sure how else you plan to stop this from turning to the worse case."

Imrah interlocked his fingers and considered the boy's words. "Perhaps we could have a guard placed on Arie. People that not only she trusts, but that we do too." He looked at Raoul thoughtfully. "The young man who's your squire of sorts. Lerant. He stood up for her and even interrupted a meeting to do so. Could he be spared from his duties?"

A smile twitched across Roual's mouth. "I think he might be spared." Then he looked thoughtfully at Avery. "From what Twitchy says you already watch over Arie so I assume it wouldn't be a hardship for you to continue, but then I think Kel and Neal wouldn't mind keeping an eye on her in places you or Lerant can't necessarily go. Would this be acceptable?"

Avery looked thoughtful, not pleased, not concerned. But after a moment the boy nodded.

"Then once we have the list of people, we can start looking for them."

Twitchy stayed long enough to hear the list of names. Each name was someone that Twitchy either hadn't been able to find or hadn't thought of. Including a young fire starter who had a thing for Arie. Twitchy gave his word to look into the people using his contacts in the Thieves Guild and then left after promising to inform Arie of what they had found.